With Carlos Mataora and Tere Glassie still to arrive and scrum-half Marty Turner having just one training session behind him, the Roughyeds were outmuscled in the pack.

Mercer said: "I was actually pleased because all of the new signings, the likes of Andy Isherwood, Paul Norman and Damian Munro, performed well."

"The result didn't go our way but there are still three or four players to come and, in fairness, Rochdale had their full squad out. They had a bit more bulk up front than us in the end, that was the difference."

"But there will be props coming into our squad soon. I am talking with overseas players and we're also looking at recruiting a prop from the amateur game."

Youngster Adam Sharples went off in the early in the game with a knee injury, although it may not be as bad as was first feared. There is no official diagnosis yet, but Mercer believes it could just be a bad twist that would rule the player out for about a month.

The Roughyeds squad are holding a two-day training camp at Gloucester Rugby Union Club this weekend.

Mercer said: "We're going to use their facilities and have a proper team get-together in a professional environment. It will be good to spend quality time on the training park and will help us gel together more as a unit."

The players return on Sunday and will then step-up their training ahead of Friday's warm-up game at Leeds in the Barrie McDermott testimonial game.